Malta.
1. Thomas, first Lord Fairfax (descended from a family asserted to have
been seated at Towcester, co. Northampton, at the time of the Norman
invasion and subsequently of note in Yorkshire), accompanied the Earl of
Essex into France, temp. Eliz., and was knighted by him in the camp before
Rouen. He was created a peer of Scotland, 4th May, 1627; but why of
Scotland, or for what services, I know not.
2. I cannot discover that the family ever possessed lands in Scotland. They
were formerly owners of Denton Castle, co. York (which they sold to the
family of Ibbetson, Barts.), and afterwards of Leeds Castle, Kent.
3. Precise information on this point is looked for from some transatlantic
correspondent.
4. The claim of the Rev. Bryan, eighth Lord Fairfax, was admitted by the
House of Lords, 6th May, 1800 (_H. L. Journals_). He was, I presume, born
before the acknowledgment of independence.
5. The title seems to be erroneously retained in the Peerages, as the
gentleman now styled Lord Fairfax cannot, it is apprehended, be a
natural-born subject of the British Crown, or capable of inheriting the
dignity. It seems, therefore, that the peerage, if not extinct, awaits
another claimant. As a direct authority, I may refer to the case of the
Scottish earldom of Newburgh, in the succession to which the next heir (the
Prince Gustiniani), being an alien, was passed over as a legal nonentity.
(See _Riddell on Scottish Peerages_, p. 720.) There is another case not
very easily reconcilable with the last, viz. that of the Earl of Athlone,
who, though a natural-born subject of the Prince of Orange, was on 10th
March, 1795, permitted to take his seat in the House of Lords in Ireland
(_Journals H. L. I._). Perhaps some correspondent will explain this case.